Pellets for 10m air pistol.

[bootneckbob]

Another way to look at it:
£8 R10
£4 XXX

Half price!

It's important to remember I'm not not shooting cheap for cheap sake; I've tested the pellets with the pistol clamped, and the results were as good as R10. The other brands I tried; Bisley, RWS Hobby, Umarex and another I've forgotten were not.

So my annual outlay for lead is half what it would be for banging R10 down range with the same results. I'm on a budget; you guys crack on with R10 if you like

[craig9mm]

I remember Mick Gault slagging off R10s at a training seminar !!forget what he was using,it was a few years ago...but 575 is prob a bad day for him
so he would be pellet fussy
I shot a series of high 90s with Geco as I left my JSBs at home
The following night I was rubbish with JSBs... so mainly it was me
Theres no such thing as practice,everytime you shoot...its serious,it may be you against you,but thats usually the problem,the person behind the gun

[Matt]

I did some batch testing with the NSRA pistol and rifle squads a few years ago the results were interesting and generally the R10 matched or most often bettered the performance of the shooters own selected pellets or batch tested pellets of other manufacturers.

Do better grouping pellets really matter? For pistol the difference between a good batch and an average batch is noticeable but with integer scoring and also the inherent movement of a shooters aim point it's debatable whether it makes a huge difference to your score.

To counter the above argument though 10m is very much in your head, any doubts and it's a very unforgiving sport, so if you can see an improvement by using xyz pellet then I would say use it as then it gives you one less thing to worry about.

Matt

[RobinC]

Testing with machine rests or bench rests over 10 shots or even 20 or 40 shots, is close to being a waste of time, it may show you the very bad makes, but its not enough time to split the better ones. The serious shooters, and manufacturers testing ammo, and barrels seriously, (not just for a general production run) will test over at least a 200 shot test, and as said to me "sods law" the next one is the flyer! So its only a guide! I'm aware of some who do 250 shot tests.

People talk about their wonderful tight ten shot test groups with all in the same hole, but the tens are irrelevant, we expect those, its the unexpected shot towards the 9 or worse a 9 out of the group that we are looking for. On metric with a rifle, if the shot is out of the group by 0.1 of where you pointed it, you loose 0.1, if with a pistol with integer and you point it at the edge of the ten, and its out by 0.1 (not you?) you loose a whole point, there is always the argument that you could save a point, but quoted law from Mr Sod above applies! Those who claim "acceptable" averages, or regular tens or 50's or 100's, what about the ones you missed? Do you shoot nothing but tens?

Its beyond me, why save £4 over 2 and 1/2 weeks, £1.60 a week, if you are so hard up, I'm sorry if I offend you, but I'm I'm sure you can save that another way if your sport matters to you? Why risk loosing points? Maybe miss your PB, even though it may not equal the world record? Its the big advantage of shooting air, the cost is low.

I've shot internationally air pistol, If you don't think you need the best pellets, that's your choice, and knowing Micky G well, and his coach, an old friend, the current GB coach, and also a CWG gold medalist, I can assure you they would say the same, for heavens sake just use the best, the cost difference is peanuts.

Incidentally Mick used Qiang Yuan latterly, they are at least as good as RWS R10.

I'm returning to my cave now, Hi Craig, hope you are well.

Have Fun
Robin

Have Fun

[craig9mm]

you to Robin,stay well

[bootneckbob]

People talk about their wonderful tight ten shot test groups with all in the same hole, but the tens are irrelevant, we expect those, its the unexpected shot towards the 9 or worse a 9 out of the group that we are looking for. On metric with a rifle, if the shot is out of the group by 0.1 of where you pointed it, you loose 0.1, if with a pistol with integer and you point it at the edge of the ten, and its out by 0.1 (not you?) you loose a whole point, there is always the argument that you could save a point, but quoted law from Mr Sod above applies! Those who claim "acceptable" averages, or regular tens or 50's or 100's, what about the ones you missed? Do you shoot nothing but tens?

Its beyond me, why save £4 over 2 and 1/2 weeks, £1.60 a week, if you are so hard up, I'm sorry if I offend you, but I'm I'm sure you can save that another way if your sport matters to you? Why risk loosing points? Maybe miss your PB, even though it may not equal the world record? Its the big advantage of shooting air, the cost is low.

I've shot internationally air pistol, If you don't think you need the best pellets, that's your choice, and knowing Micky G well, and his coach, an old friend, the current GB coach, and also a CWG gold medalist, I can assure you they would say the same, for heavens sake just use the best, the cost difference is peanuts.

Incidentally Mick used Qiang Yuan latterly, they are at least as good as RWS R10.

I'm returning to my cave now, Hi Craig, hope you are well.

Have Fun
Robin

Have Fun

Robin,
I don't disagree with you regarding pellets but as with most things it all needs to be in context. Someone else has already mentioned that there's a thread on another pistol forum (Target talk) that unless you shoot above 555 there's little point in shooting R10s for the sake of it. I'm now shooting just above that (not in competition because we haven't had any for over a year) but my technique is better now than it ever has been. This leads me to your point on the missed 10s. I can call my shots pretty much all the time now so when I get a rogue one it can be that 'oh, what happened there' moment. But I'd still say unless I'm shooting at national or international level the money spent on expensive ammo for the reasons you gave won't wash with me. If money weren't an object of course I'd probably shoot Qys and R10 or whatever else was the top pellet. Tbh, I couldn't afford to be a better shot as I couldn't afford to travel to the comps. I stopped shooting the Eley comp as going to Bisley is an expensive day out for me travelling from North Devon.
I also shoot FT & HFT so the available budget needs to cover a multitude of airgun fun. My Field target shooting is also limited to shooting in my region and not travelling up country for that reason.

I've got 4 tins of R10 left from when I switched to Geco 5 or 6 years ago. I might break one out and see if I can beat my PB of 573! Tbh, if they were tighter over a number of 600 series I'd consider switching, but my budgets still the same so I'll have to shoot less (more dry firing I hear you say) but that takes the fun out of the hobby!

I do track all my shooting with the Target Scan app, so watching the trends with a particular pistol setup or pellet choice is easy.

Regards,
Rob

[derekm]

Unless your average is well into the 90s, there's no point IMO in premium pellets. For every "squeaker" 10 that you miss because of the pellet, there will be a "squeaker" 10 that you gain. Law of averages. Stick to H & N Excite Econo or Geco and concentrate on sighting & trigger control.

[John Carr]

Thanks for all your helpful replies, much appreciated.